


Blueprints Burning

by Half_SubmergedinPurgatory



Series: Cell Block Tango Alternates [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alpha Bucky Barnes, Alpha Steve Rogers, Alternate Universe for Cell Block Tango, Multi, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Tony Stark, Pre-Slash, Skinny Steve, Teen Romance, The 'What if Tony Lived in Steve and Bucky's Time' Verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 07:46:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14711996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Half_SubmergedinPurgatory/pseuds/Half_SubmergedinPurgatory
Summary: Tony's an Omega living as a Beta in Manhattan who comes down to Brooklyn for the chance to act like himself - he wants to take care of people even if he can't have a real pack. His dad would be furious if he ever found out and, considering Tony's official papers list him as a Beta, he'd be jailed if anyone else found out either. Good thing no one in Brooklyn knows he's a Stark.Steve and Bucky are a pair of Alphas just trying to keep their neighbourhood happy and healthy. Steve is weak and sickly for an Alpha, Bucky's the most Alpha Alpha you can be, but Steve's got all the power.The three of them are all a little weird. Maybe they can be weird together?//A mashup of the First Burn and Blueprint Specials verses based on the tumblr prompt: So now that Tony's a little older in FB, what would happen if Tony from that universe got put into BS?//





	Blueprints Burning

**Author's Note:**

> Reading either First Burn and Blueprint Specials would probably be useful for understanding this ficlet.
> 
>  
> 
> Let’s just imagine that the Starks are living in New York in the 1920s and that their dynamic hasn’t changed. If Tony were about 14, and Bucky and Steve were their BS ages (18 and 16), it’d go a little something like this:

During his morning rounds, Bucky notices something’s a little different. It’s subtle at first - there’s some change in a cup with his gutter kids. Then it gets a little more obvious - his dock workers have a new pulley system, the Sicilian keeps laughing about something ( _”My name is- no, you know what, I’m not saying it again. I know you know it Barnes, really, is this necessary?”_ ), and his gutter kids always seem to have a plate of sandwiches.

Somebody is moving along Bucky’s route and swiping his chores. Moving in on his people. They’re doing an insultingly good job at it.

Bucky’s pride stings a bit.

On one hand, he can’t afford to feed all the kids. He knows that. Somebody helping out is a damn good thing - not a lot of people in this city cared about packless kids with the Depression and all. The docks needed the equipment, too, and he couldn’t provide that ( _though he’d been saving pennies and doing favours left and right_ ).

On the other hand, an unknown hanging around his people was enough to get Bucky’s hackles up on a good day. Somebody managing to avoid not only his notice, but the kids’ notice? That was a whole other brand of alarming.

Also, he was jealous. So sue him - he never claimed to be a perfect Alpha.

He nudges Steve awake well before dawn and drags him out of the house with him. Steve complains - he never wants to go out anymore, not since Sarah passed, but Bucky isn’t going to let him rot away in the dark. They have a mystery to solve. His curiousity and agitation fuel Steve with enough energy he at least begins to look around in interest.

“Wha’ goin’ on Buck?”

He yawns, squinting into the darkness of an awkwardly shaped alleyway ( _a great place to hide in the boroughs_ ),

“Some filth roll into the city ‘gain?”

Bucky shakes his head and shushes Steve, keeping his eyes trained on the piece of land his gutter brats liked to hang out at in the early hours. Steve grumbles, but settles in to wait, a supportive presence at Bucky’s side.

A slip of a kid ( _skinny as Steve_ ) walks on absolutely silent feet around the corner. His brown hair tumbles in curls over his ears. His clothes are posh - way too posh for the area - but he moves in a way that reminds Bucky of the Sicilian.

It’s threatening.

The kid does some sleight of hand, producing a place of sandwiches from somewhere under his coat, placing it down so smoothly Bucky almost doesn’t see it. Everything about this tableau screams WRONG.

Bucky growls and the kid’s head whips around. Steve stiffens by Bucky’s side, already beginning to smell like fight and giving their position away. The kid’s eyes focus on a dark patch just below their feet.

“Oh, I thought somebody was watching over them…”

The kid murmurs to himself. His hands move as he talks and Bucky’s spine goes ramrod straight, nervous that the kid is going to pull a knife or something from his coat (as fast as he pulled out the sandwiches).

“I was just trying to help out a little - instinct’s a bitch.”

The kid laughs self-depreciatingly. He looks incredibly tired. The wind picks up a little and Bucky can’t resist taking a whiff.

He smells…absolutely nothing.

He rears back, confused and somewhat affronted because kid’s smell neutral and this one just…didn’t. It was WRONG.

Steve takes a step out from behind him, not able to pick up on the same weirdness Bucky was, and slips out of the shadows. Bucky tries to pull him back, however Steve is a slippery jerk even when he was tired ( _too used to Bucky grabbing at him by now_ ).

“We don’t need help.”

Steve snarls, confrontational as can be, and then in a grumble:

“But thanks for the sandwiches. The kids could use ‘em.”

Bucky wants to grind Steve’s face in the goddamn dirt. Always so polite, even when he was rude. Sarah Rogers’ only success: giving Steve manners. Woman must be rolling over in her grave right now with the way he was using them.

The kid bats his pretty brown eyes at Steve, a sly grin taking over his face. His fingers dance over his cufflinks as he responds,

“You sure you couldn’t use some, too?”

Steve snarls, drowning out Bucky’s, but the kid seems to catch it anyway. There’s some fleeting expression crossing his face - it seems a little lonely.

“Ah,”

The kid mumbles,

“I didn’t realize you were somebody’s Prime. My bad - stepping on toes is something of a hobby, I guess. Or a curse.”

He ambles away right afterwards, shoulders hunched in on himself and completely failing to notice the way Steve gawped after him.

“He noticed I’m your Prime?”

Steve demanded, grabbing Bucky by the collar and shaking him in excitement.

“Wait - was he being rude?”

Steve’s scent shifted to anger,

“He was, wasn’t he? That jerk-”

Bucky threw Steve over his shoulder for the second time that day, ignoring his kicking and shouting to investigate the plate of sandwiches. He picked one up to smell it - ham and cheese. Nothing else in it. Not poison or anything he could pick up.

Maybe the weird kid wasn’t a threat. Bucky was going to watch him until he proved it, though.

Bucky and Steve go back to the alley the next morning, but the kid isn’t there. A plate of sandwiches is, though. Steve snickers while Bucky curses up a storm. He has to physically tow Bucky away from the sandwich plate and the curious gazes of his kids.

The next time they show up, there’s no sandwich plate. But Bucky ain’t no fool and he knows this game, had to learn it to catch a bunch of half-feral brats, and so he waits. And waits. And waits even longer, well after Steve has started to doodle in his notebook.

The kid shows up with his sandwiches.

“You’re more patient than I thought.”

He says, then jumps a good foot when Bucky replies,

“’M not patient at all. ‘M impatient. Sittin’ out here all day ain’t my idea of a grand time.”

The kid clutches at his heart and laughs shakily,

“I didn’t actually think you were there. I was just testing-”

Everything about his body language says ‘startled’, but he still smells like absolutely nothing. Then, bizarrely, Bucky gets a whiff of Beta shock that is…oddly flat.

He sniffs at the air audibly and the kid scowls into the darkness of the alley.

Bucky sniffs again just to annoy him. He hears Steve huff in amusement, which must hit the kid pretty hard, though he just…doesn’t react.

Weird.

Really really weird.

The kid drops off his sandwich plate, then jumps again when one of Bucky’s kids grabs one and drops it into the kid’s coat pocket. They turn their head and, ah, yeah, of course it’s Yuki.

“Thanks.”

They mumble,

“Ya gotta eat, too, though. Bucky’s always sayin’ that.”

The kid’s face goes through a long series of expressions before settling on one Bucky usually sees on people petting kittens. Beside him, Steve makes a confused noise - nobody ever reacted to Yuki like that. Yuki was recently presented, a sharp-edged Omega who was always poking people’s emotions with a stick, always trying to piss them off just to see what kind of person they were ( _would they hurt them or would they just walk away?_ ).

Even from a distance, Bucky could just TELL that’s what they were doing. And this kid was just…smiling at them all creepy-like.

“Yer weird.”

Yuki mumbled, biting into a sandwich viciously. Some of the other gutter brats edged in closer, encouraged by the kid’s continued resistance to Yuki’s influence.

“You’re a brat.”

The kid said, reaching out and flicking Yuki’s nose. It gets him bit, but he just snorts. A gutter brat ( _Sunshine, AKA the pissiest little bugger Bucky had ever met_ ) grabs his wrist and jams her nose into it. Bucky can’t pick up a damn thing and neither can the other brats, but Sunshine’s eyes go big and round.

“Do that again!”

She demands, but the kid just snorts and ruffles her hair.

“A man’s gotta have his secrets, darling.”

The kid says. He winks at the darkness of the alleyway and calls out,

“Even from a fetching Prime and his invisible Second.”

Then, as always, he disappears.

______

The Sicilian knows all about the kid. In fact, he knows too much about him. He’s got a weird twist to his mouth that Bucky has seen before.

“How’s he mixed up with the likes of ya?”

Bucky grumbles, pinching his nose. Steve has taken to poking around the city for signs of the mysterious kid. Bucky can’t tell if it’s because he wants to propose or to pick a fight, but he’s been tolerant of it if it gets Steve out of the house.

The Sicilian ( _”Re-nal-to. Say it with me Barnes - Barnes, stop walking away!”_ ) chuckles heartily.

“Have you ever met Peggy Carter?”

He asks, mischief tucked into the corners of every word. Bucky’s heard her name - he’s heard half the gossip in this city. A UK servicewoman who walked and talked like she’d throw you out a window for looking at her funny. One who had disappeared and reappeared within a year, hanging around the Stark mansion in Manhattan.

“She’s not a Brooklyn girl.”

Bucky responds, frowning. The Sicilian chuckles again and Bucky’s stomach drops,

“The kid - no way. There’s no way a Stark wandered on in from Manhattan to Brooklyn! He’s been feedin’ orphans!”

There’s a beat of silence wherein the Sicilian raises a single well-sculpted brow.

“Maybe he’s got a secret.”

The Sicilian says, pulling out a cigar and lighting it,

“I bet you’d know all about that…”

______

The Stark kid is at the docks. All the dock Omegas are pestering him when Bucky and Steve show up - the Neighbours have a way of sucking up to strangers. It’s annoying, and the Stark kid actually looks grateful to see them when Bucky calls out a greeting.

Up close, he looks even more posh than he had at a distance. He’s got golden skin and freckles, curly brown cocker-spaniel hair ( _Steve had drawn him as a dog. It’d been funny_ ), and eyes framed by thick dark lashes. He almost looked like a girl, all delicate and unburnt, like he’d never worked a day in the sun.

The kid tipped him a two-finger salute with heavily calloused hands. Huh.

Angus ruffled the kid’s hair and swiped his wrist against his neck, making the kid startle pretty violently. Angus outwardly ignored the surprise over a fairly standard act, flipping his wrist up for the kid to smell ( _proving he was safe_ ). The kid stared at his wrist like it was possessed, but took a whiff nonetheless, then awkwardly offered his own.

Clearly he wasn’t all that used to being friendly with strangers. Quips were all well and good, but the dockside family act was freaking him out.

Bucky reached out before Angus could and took the Starklet’s hand. He pulled it in so he could brush nose against the crook of his elbow instead, a much more intimate position, and locked eyes with him.

The Starklet turned pink, frowned at him, and…

Smelled just the slightest bit like a reluctantly amused Omega. Bucky froze, then pulled the kid closer again, tucking his nose right into the crook of his neck. Frustratingly, the Starklet smelled like nothing again. Absolutely nothing - not even whatever Beta bullshit was there before.

“Take me for a shake first, doll.”

The kid drawled. Bucky abruptly pulled back and felt himself blush to the roots of his hair. He winked at the kid and kissed his wrist, taking another sniff just to be sure-

A flicker of Omega amusement.

The jackass was taunting him. Bucky’s eyes flashed as Steve glanced between him and the secret Omega. Steve sighed - it looked like Bucky had found a new obsession. Not that Steve minded much this time. He was pretty curious, too.

______

Somebody was throwing rocks at their window. Bucky groaned and hauled himself out of bed. The dock Omegas had made him work a double-shift for trying to ditch work to follow the kid down the street - his whole body hurt.

Another rock hit the window. Sighing, Bucky pried it open, ready to yell at his stupid street brats.

An apple nearly socked him in the jaw. Bucky fumbled and caught it, peering blearily at the note wrapped around it.

“My name’s Tony. Bet you won’t figure out what’s different at the docks tomorrow before sundown.”

There’s a stick figure drawn at the bottom of it. It looks like…Steve with devil horns, maybe? Or bull horns - actually, it was probably bull horns, knowing Steve. There’s a stick figure of Bucky next to him, identifiable only by the speech bubble above his head saying,

“I can’t find anything without my nose.”

Bucky jams his head out the window, yelling into the night,

“That’s jus’ yer opinion Tony, ya fake Beta! Fight me like a real man!”

His neighbours yell at him, but Bucky doesn’t care. He only cares that Tony heard him ( _his laughter echoing in the streets, high and bright, indicating that he’s not afraid to wander Brooklyn in the wee hours. Probably knew how to handle himself - good. Bucky didn’t need to give in to the newfound urge to walk him home, then_ ).

______

Steve’s the one who figures out that the fishing boat has been refinished and then stained to look EXACTLY the same, just more seaworthy. He busts a gut over it - coughing and wheezing while his amusement makes the Neighbours chuckle. For once in Steve’s life, Bucky actually wishes he’d get mad, because he can’t believe he’s been had like this.

Tony doesn’t show up at the docks to greet them when they get back and there’s some murmurs of disappointment. The new finish is excellent, despite its old and used look. Steve is especially curious about how Tony did it ( _he’s warming up to him too fast. Bucky can’t believe his grouchy best friend is giving in this easily - is it because Tony’s a skinny brat, too?)_.

They find him lounging with the street kids, all of them dogpiling on top of him. The sight stops them dead in their tracks - Bucky’s kids don’t trust ANYONE that easy ( _suddenly Bucky remembers his first impression of Tony. The idea that something was wrong with him came back with all the force of a freight train_ ).

Tony smells like a happy Omega. It’s strong - it’s really strong, nearly bowls Bucky over and has Steve taking a step forward before Bucky can grab him to hold him back.

“So ya are an Omega!”

Bucky bursts out, trying to keep a struggling Steve from diving into the puppy pile,

“I dunno why Renalto kept tryin’ to say ya were a Stark - their kid’s a Beta-”

Tony’s scent abruptly goes completely flat. It’s disquieting and Bucky’s kids retreat from him quickly. Steve whines high in the back of his throat, not sure how to proceed ( _he never knew how to deal with people he actually liked_ ).

“Looks like Brooklyn isn’t far enough away.”

Tony muttered, dusting himself off.

“See ya.”

He said, then immediately started running. Without thinking, Bucky took off right after him, tuning out Steve’s angry shouting.

______

Bucky hears a bit of Tony’s story when he catches him, but he doesn’t get the rest until Tony comes back a few months later with a broken arm. There’s no way Bucky can knife Tony’s dad. He knows that.

It doesn’t stop him from thinking about it. Doesn’t stop Steve from drawing a political cartoon for free for the local newspaper of Howard Stark swapping out Lady Liberty’s torch for a gun.

Tony laughs. He laughs but it doesn’t change the fact that his arm is broken and he’s a little colder.

Doesn’t change the fact he doesn’t come back for almost a year after that.

When Tony finally rolls back into town, he nuzzles against Steve like an overfriendly cat just to watch him blush. He nips Steve’s neck and swipes his wrists over his sweater, staining it with his smug amusement.

Steve smells hilariously embarrassed when he very seriously marks Tony back. It gets Bucky thinking, just like he’s been doing for awhile - he wants Tony Stark in the pack. Steve likes him, which is an absolute rarity, and Bucky does, too.

Bucky sneaks up behind him and wraps his arms around Tony’s waist. He nips the back of his neck playfully, snuffles at his hair while dodging Tony’s attempts of swatting at him, then rubs his head against his back. Tony screeches in annoyance when Bucky catches a hand and nips that, too.

Smugly, he rubs his wrist right against Tony’s, mingling their scent in a way that satisfied an itch deep inside. He pulls Tony inwards so they are chest to chest.

“Only Steve gets a mark? Sugar, I’m hurt.”

He rumbles, grinning slyly as Tony pinks and Steve rolls his eyes ( _used to seeing Bucky pull this on every pretty face since he turned 16_ ). Tony rolls his eyes, too.

“You can’t handle me - you’re just a Second.”

Tony tells him, craning his head so he can wink at Steve. Steve’s thin chest puffs out and Bucky wants to dump him on his head.

“I’m a big bad Redline.”

Bucky tells Tony, snuffling at his hair again,

“I can handle anything.”

Tony groans, pushing Bucky’s face away and squishing his cheeks (much to Steve’s amusement),

“More like you’re even weaker to it than anyone else. Ugh, here-”

He rubs his wrists against his neck, concentrating on collecting just a bit of scent ( _an ability he won’t share the origins of with them_ ), and then he presses it over Bucky’s heart. Tony grins at him, all shark-teeth and bad intentions, and then rubs his fingers over Bucky’s neck in a way that makes his knees go weak.

Tony smells all kinds of sultry and possessive. Bucky holds him tighter, snatching those devious fingers to nip at the tips ( _pressing their hips together for just a moment_ ). The three of them go out for shakes, wind up dancing on Tony’s dime, and tumble back into the apartment together. Tony sleeps between the two of them, but while both Steve and Bucky reach for a bond, there’s no reciprocation on Tony’s end.

They don’t get a chance to try again before they get another apple note. Tony’s aunt is off to join Britain’s war effort and Tony is going, too.

  
______

They meet again at war. Tony’s in the uniform of the enemy, his scent flat and blank, and there’s a warning in his gaze as he looks down at Bucky and the Howlies in their cages. Bucky stays mum and the Howlies, god bless their hearts, do as well. They're familiar with spies after Peggy.

Tony ghosts back in the night, face pale and drawn, and whispers,

“They’re doing experimentation here. Anyone who is sick - they’re going to use it as a test to see if the serum makes people better.”

Bucky coughs into his hand and wonders what entity he’s pissed off. Tony leans his forehead against the bars.

“That serum kills. I have to get you out of here.”

Tony whispers. There’s a determined set to his shoulders that comes straight out of Steve’s playbook. it’s one that says, ‘I’m gonna do something stupid’. Bucky reaches out to snatch Tony’s sleeve from between the bars, but he’s already gone.

The whole base is hit by a screaming inferno of fear the next night. It causes pandemonium and Bucky just knows the origin is Tony. It’s a terrifying thought ( _something was wrong with him, but something was wrong with Bucky, too_ ).

Not only does it throw Hydra into disarray, the scent pulls in Steve like a bloodhound. Bigger, better at smelling, and much more likely to bond Steve Rogers, newly minted as Captain America.

Apparently Tony had left a blazing trail to the place - he’d gone for a walk to remember all morning.

They all escape, but no one sees Tony. Bucky’s fever peaks and he passes out.

When he comes to, he feels a powerful bond and knows it’s Steve. He could probably identify him anywhere now. But he also feels another one, twisted and little bit off, and groans,

“Tony?”

Just like that, it snaps into place, like it had been waiting to for years. Tony’s part of the pack now.

Bucky doesn’t open his eyes to see how pale Tony’s face has gone or how equally sheet white Peggy Carter is. He has no idea what Tony will be going home to. 


End file.
